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It seems 2016 will go down in history as the year of the Siberian Accentor, providing perhaps not only the avian highlight of the year in Britain, but across many European nations also.
This event is perhaps not over yet, but between 4th and 24th October an astonishing 148 Siberian Accentors have been recorded in Europe. To give this some perspective, prior to this year there had only been c.32 records up to 2015 (more than half of which were from Sweden and Finland), so this year's events are truly remarkable. These were the first records since a bird in Norway in 2011.
The first turned up on 4 October in Finland (the country's 12th record, and the first for 12 years), whilst two days later another was seen in Sweden (that nations seventh, and the first for 16 years). From then on the flood gates opened and as of 24th October the totals for the 2016 influx stand at 52 for Sweden, 44 for Finland, 10 for Denmark, 9 for Britain, 7 for Germany, 6 for Estonia and Poland, 5 for Latvia and Norway, 3 for Lithuania and one in the Netherlands. Those in Britain, Netherlands, Germany, Estonia and Latvia were all first national records.
Breeding on both sides of the Ural mountains and in Siberia, mostly north of the Arctic Circle the species is highly migratory, wintering in south-eastern Asia from southern Manchuria, Korea and Japan to central China. As well as the European records it has also been recorded in the USA, mainly from Alaska.
The reason for this influx is not entirely understood at this moment in time and suggestions have been linked to possible food shortages leading to eruptive movements, a bumper breeding season or a possible expansion in breeding range. It is likely, however, that it may be simply down to the weather with exceptional high/low pressure areas creating a prolonged spell of strong easterly winds stretching right back to Siberia to northern Europe creating 'the perfect storm'. The supporting cast of Siberian vagrants in Britain and Europe during the same period, in both quality and quantity, would also seem to support this theory.
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